Taking advantage of the nice(ish?) weather on Sunday the 27th, and a free morning, I went up to the landfill to indulge in the challenge that is gull identification!
Many birds were present, almost a thousand, most being Ring-billed Gulls, as usual. I estimated 150 Herring Gulls, 45 California Gulls and found 1 Mew Gull and 1 Thayer's Gull. I managed to do quite well in the relm of photographing the gulls, and got some pretty good shots! I looked and looked, for about an hour, but I did not turn up any "white-winged" or "dark-backed" gulls. I have been working hard on learning 1st and 2nd-cycle Slaty-backed and Lesser black-backed Gulls in hopes that I can use that to positively ID one! It seems most of those species go unnoticed unless they are full adults.
Here are my best photos from Sunday! Enjoy!
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| adult Ring-billed Gull |
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| adult Herring Gull (Ring-billed in foreground) |
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| adult California Gull |
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| adult Mew Gull |
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| 1st-cycle Herring Gull |
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| 1st-cycle Herring Gull |
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| 2nd-cycle California Gull |
It was a good day at the dump, and I got to exercise my gull-ID. I plan on going back many times this winter, and hopefully will find something quite odd! In the meantime, I will continue to learn new aspects of gull ID! It's a lot to learn!
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